As you go about your daily business, there is a distinct feeling of change in the air. This of course culminated in the election of President Barrack Obama which made so many of feel that a new and welcome age is dawning.
Even with all the doom and gloom about the economy in the media on the ground there is a feeling that although things are incredibly tight for so many people, there is an immense feeling of optimism and hope that this whole incident is going to make us, our businesses and therefore society and the economy much stronger.
Business owners are really honing into what their USP is; what their niche is within their market and this is beginning to generate results. We are cutting out the hype and instead we're harnessing our authentic self's, the essence of who we are and what we do and WHY we do it.
This is a great time for reflection to help us all to strengthen our positions in where we want to be and what we want to achieve.
Last week we celebrated Gerrards Cross Athena's first birthday. It was (as usual!) a great meeting and it was also a time for reflection and celebration of all the group has achieved over the past year.
It was wonderful to hear how members have developed (both on a personal and business level) over the last year and to share all those success stories.
I was also particularly touched with talented GX member, Beata Rachowiecka's Ode to Athena. Please see a copy of it below!
An Ode to Athena
Today is pink Wednesday and
we are all here
To give the mighty Athena a
good year long cheer!
The goddess of wisdom she’s
come to be known
As parton of weaving she sat
on the throne.
This is no surprise that she
thus was chosen
To lead us wise women to
futures more golden.
Tall did she stand proud when
times so demanded
Brave wars she did fight and
strategy commanded.
The daughter of Zeus
She got some good juice
To keep her all zealous
And never stay jealous.
The good food she liked a
little like me
But never indulged in a long
shopping spree.
She had the endurance of a
great many men
Whilst never crept back into
her own little den.
She is an example to us
ladies and more:
Being brave, forging links we
all so adore.
Strategic alliances come to
us so fast
We make good business and can
make it last.
At Focus Nutrition we too her
admire
For her love of discipline in
food we aspire.
The flowers and trees can
help us in doing
What we do like most and need
little chewing.
The wisdom of men we have in
us already
So wellness we keep and make
it quite steady.
If you need advice on matters
like this
Come forth and Beata will
turn your life to bliss.
Some work you may need to do
at your end
With walks or Pilates your
body will mend.
To stay slim and fit you will
need to cook
The mirror won’t lie how fab
you will you look.
Drink water you’ll need to
embrace once for all
And when in doubt what to do
you will give me a call.
Like thoughtful Athena I’ll
stand to you near
Until between us your
problems we’ll clear.
What moral that poem is asked
to impart ?
Together all girls can make
the world re-start.
Start spinning your webs and
together we will
Succeed in all businesses and
have little thrill.
Since life is by far too
serious without fun
And we girls of Athena surely
know how that’s done!
I saw this on Tuesday and thought it was a great article! For those of you who read my blog regularly will also identify with Kate's sentiments!
Please see a copy of her article below...
Why Mums make
great business people
It’s 09:00 and
you’ve already been to the gym before the family stirs, breakfasted with the
children whilst helping them get ready for school, remembering to take the
chicken out of the freezer for the evening meal, putting a load of washing on
and taking an early morning call from a client. So starts the typical day of a
Mumpreneur.
Taking daily hectic home routines, mashing it up with
a busy work schedule and, often, mixing that up with an essential social life
is par for the course for most women in business. And through this ability to
combine an enormous workload yet still manage to keep everything functioning
smoothly is exactly the abilities that make a Mum the ideal business person.
Think of the attributes you need to succeed in
business. To succeed you need to be able to multi task yet still focus on the
end goal. From overseeing the operations, to making sure the daily function of
an office is running seamlessly, to high level financial negotiation to dealing
with inter staff disputes a Mumpreneur is likely to consider and be able to
deal with all these issues whilst keeping an eye on the big picture goal.
The ability to negotiate with even the most
unreasonable people is also a valuable asset. Whether they are right or wrong,
staff often have an opinion or desire which needs to be acknowledged but isn’t
necessarily the best for the company, the client or themselves. And Mum, who
has stood up to a 3 year old having a tantrum in an assertive and productive
manner, already has this experience. A creative company director I spoke to
recently quoted her clients as being as ‘petulant as her teenager’. I suggested
she applied the same tactics as she applied at home – consideration,
negotiation, rules and rewards. Her ‘tough love’ principle secured a great
contract and set the boundaries for a productive working relationship.
The ability to be adaptive, learn new skills, and be
reactive to changing demand and desires is also paramount. Every Mum I know has
had that, ‘I need to go to school tomorrow in historical fancy dress’
conversation at 9pm at night, then to find themselves creating ‘Boadicea’ out
of bits of sticky back plastic and an old bed sheet. That creativity and
adaptability and that ‘what the heck’ gusto is a great asset. Even scarier is
the maths problem of a kid sitting GCSE – I know many a parent who has turned
to BBC Bite Size whilst a child sleeps to explain the problem the morning
after. Now that’s willing and able.
A Mumpreneur is undaunted – whether its illness,
school holidays or family crisis or equally a brought forward deadline, a 24
hour pitch or a crisis management situation. They always have a plan, a support
system and have considered these issues if only subconsciously in the wee hours
of the morning.
And a Mumpreneur knows how to get the best out of her
team – whether at home or at the office. By encouragement, praise, reward and
consistency you can guarantee a busy Mumpreneur evokes loyalty and commitment
and the willingness of either her family or staff to go that little bit extra
for the benefit of the team as a whole.
Finally there is reliability – if it needs doing it
will be done – and often by her own fair hand. There is no over inflated
opinion of herself, or ‘jobs worth’ mentality – if it needs doing the
Mumpreneur will gladly get her hands as dirty as her teams.
Its often said that Mum’s suffer a dip in confidence
after taking a break to have a family, worrying their skill set is reduced by
their absence from the work force, or fear that other colleagues may judge her
torn between family and work. On the contrary, the Mum experience improves and
enhances a business person’s ability, like an in-house management training
course of unprecedented ferocity.
And as the saying goes, if you want something done,
ask a busy person. Who better than a Mumpreneur?
By Kate Lester
Managing Director of Diamond Logistics and RS
Couriers.
How many of you made your escape from the corporate world to start your own business having every intention of working less hours each week?
Of course being your own boss means that you have total flexibility about your working hours but why is it so many business owners end up clocking up more hours running their own businesses than they did in their corporate job?
The answer isn't rocket science: when it's your own business, it's your baby and you are passionate about wanting to make it work so you put in all the time you possibly get to make the business a success.
However, just how effective are you being with your time?
I recently re-read Timothy Ferris's The Four Hour Work Week (brilliant book BTW!) and I was struck again by his section on Parkinson's Law - The 9-5 Illusion.
Essentially, when you are an employee and you work the traditional 8 hour day, you fill up all 8 hours of your time completing tasks and working...
However, if you suddenly found you had to reduce your hours by half but all the tasks had to be completed, somehow it manages to get done!
Think of all those part-time return to work mothers who claim that they are more effective and achieve more working less hours than they did before they had children and worked full time...
So by applying the same logic to those of us who run businesses, what if we limited the number of hours we spend working on our business (Ferris lives his 4-hour work week...) would we still achieve the same results and have a better work/life balance?
That's my challenge to you!
Review your list of tasks for a week and estimate how long it's going to take you to complete them all, in your current working pattern and then maybe cut down your time by a third or if you are feeling brave by half...
It's all too easy to fall into the trap to put down your competitors when trying to secure new business for yourself. Pressure is high for you to secure that next sale but it really is bad 'business karma' to make a sale based on shooting down the opposition.
Take Gordon Brown yesterday. He had to deliver what was probably the most critical speech of his political career and his audience had these super whizzy 'Rate My Speech' gadgets and as soon as he moved away from talking about new policies (new policies rated many 5/5's in his audience) to slating David Cameron, the rating slipped to 1/5...
It's just not cricket; it's just not British to be disrespectful of the competition! And this very much applies to the business world today.
At my Kings Langley Athena meeting yesterday, I had one of my long standing members approach me to say she had been 'dis loyal' at having attended another women in business group (I soon put her at ease as I really don't have a problem at all with members networking with other organizations!) and she told me how horrified she was that the organization in question was just totally selling themselves in putting Athena down!
Instead of harnessing why they did things differently and coming from a position of integrity in explaining their thought process behind their comments, they just wanted to run Athena down and in fact they did Athena many more favours than they did themselves! People see through this and begin to question the attack selling tactics they that use...
So my ever loyal Athena member told them very politely that their system wouldn't work for her and that she couldn't possibly network with them in view of their business and personal values. It's not rocket science! People buy people in business. They buy their authenticity and integrity - those are the foundations that good business is based on.
Over the last week, these two companies have been the talk in the my networking groups!
Joanna Ward, Gerrards Cross Athena member and Co-Founder of www.studentgems.com which is a fabulous tool for business owners. I recently went onto the site and sourced a brilliant student to help me re-design and set up my blog! Deborah came over to my house and spent a couple of hours with me and it cost me £20!
I know many other Athena members have benefited hugely from the services of students sourced via the site, including the recent profile on BBC Breakfast with Sonia Satsangi of Diamond Dreams who sourced a photographer to help take pictures of her beautiful gems.
So I would highly recommend you look at the site to see what you could outsource to a student...think of all those tasks just sitting in your To Do pile....
Secondly, the talk of the West London town is www.findatvexpert.com - another fabulous on-line business resource. Former TV Producer, Claire Richmond has set up this brilliant website where people register as an expert in their field and TV producers, journalists etc are then using the website as a resource to source an expert in practically any field!
Two very simple, but incredibly effective businesses...
I do encourage you to take a few moments to take a look at both sites!
When I attended my Beaconsfield Athena meeting, Amy (who I can't believe has now been a member for over 3 years!!!) handed out an A4 sheet on WOW! Her Words Of Wisdom!
Amy is always a great inspiration and although many of us may know WOW, it's always good to be reminded of them.
So thank you Amy as a couple of your WOW's resonated with me last week!
For those of you who would like to read Amy's WOW, please scroll down....
WOW! - Words of Wisdom from Amy Deane
JWhen your body sends you messages (this hurts, this isn’t working properly), LISTEN!
JIf you’re always tired, MAKE THE TIME to get more rest and sleep, your body is trying to tell you something.
JMAKE TIME TO BE. Relaxation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. What did Emma Lane always tell us? “Relaxation is a vital ingredient to health and well being.” Turns out she was right!
JMake time for REFLECTION. This is when you will receive WISDOM from your essential being which will allow your mind to be creative about your Life and your Business and what changes you want to make.
JBE OPEN to your intuition. Keeping your mind open to guide you to decisions, places and people will enrich your life with new ideas, experiences and conversations which might otherwise have passed you by.
JIf something is troubling you, WRITE IT DOWN. Putting on paper exactly how you feel allows you to articulate exactly what is bothering you without jumping in head first and distorting your thoughts. This is often a good way to resolve something with a friend, colleague or someone you love, even if you never send the letter. Remember, if you decide to send such a letter, you must be prepared for the consequences.
JTRUST that all is as it should be. Whatever life is throwing at you is there to teach you something. LOOK FOR THE LEARNING. Beyond darkness there is always light.
JTAKE RESPONSIBILITY. The only person responsible for your HAPPINESS is you. You are essentially a FREE SPIRIT. Make careful choices which generate happiness for yourself and others.
JBe proud of YOUR STORY. You are the sum of your Story to date. We all have extraordinary stories. Be proud of everything you have been through, overcome, experienced, contributed, and hold your head high.
JSMILE! If you feel exhausted with negative energy, look for something around you or in your memory to smile at. You WILL feel better. Look people in the eye wherever you are and smile. The gift of a smile in return will make yours even wider.
JGreet each day, each person and each situation with LOVE IN YOUR HEART.
I had the privilege of attending the most fabulous writing and publishing seminar before the summer holiday break.
Mindy Gibbons-Klein (The Book Midwife) and Dan Poynter (author of over 100 books!) gave a wonderful, practical and insightful seminar on how to plan, prepare, write and get the book PUBLISHED!
I loved their style and the fact that they shared a very simple, effective system designed to help the first timer achieve their goal in getting their book published.
Many of you know that we are developing a strategic alliance with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest and I must say not only has the last 6 months been an absolute pleasure working with the team to build on this alliance, I was really delighted to have been invited to attend a parliamentary reception at the House of Commons where they launched their Good Business Report.
Being an ex-banker myself, I feel that I can say that banks so often pay lip service when trying to tackle a specific market, in this case, women in business but the RBS/Natwest approach is totally refreshing.
